Géza Perneczky
Art Bubbles
Artist
Géza Perneczky
(1936, Keszthely), Hungarian
Original Title
Art Bubbles
Date1972
Mediumsilver print
Dimensions21 × 29,5 cm
Classifications
photograph
Credit LineVintage Galéria, long-term loan to Kunsthalle Praha
DescriptionGéza Perneczky is a prominent figure of Hungarian conceptual art and the Hungarian neo-avantgarde, who has been making art since the mid-1960s. At the time, he was working for Hungary’s largest publishing house, thus allowing him relative freedom to travel into Western Europe, where he absorbed information about new art movements. In 1969, he visited Harald Szeemann’s famous exhibition When Attitude Becomes Form. After emigrating to Cologne in 1970, Perneckzy spent the following five years mainly focusing on conceptual photography and experimental film. In 1971, he began a conceptual photographic series titled Concepts Like Commentary, which uses wooden balls inscribed with the word “art” to play with the concept of art as such. He incorporated these tennis balls into mini-actions exploring the relationship between image and text, which he documented through photographs. In 1973, Perneczky joined the international mail art movement NET, which significantly influenced the character of his subsequent conceptual work and allowed him to spread his art and develop ties with various artists, including Jiří Valoch and Jiří Kocman in Czechoslovakia. From 1973 to 1984, he also created artistic stamps, disseminated distributed via the post. In 1984, his artistic focus shifted to painting. The multiformat series String Pictures (1984–1987), which comprises works on canvas, paper, and wood, was created using paint rollers, thus disrupting traditional conceptions about the painterly process. Perneczky’s following series Story of the Colourful Ribbons (1987–1994) consists of conceptual book-objects made out of wood, cardboard, and ribbons. The series drew on the ideas of neo-avantgarde geometric painting and simultaneously extended into 3D art, where painting intersects with a spatialized sculptural approach.
The conceptual photographic project Concepts Like Commentary (1971) is a series of seven photographs of a wooden ball inscribed with the word “art”, placed in different situations: in front of a geometric grid (Mini-Concept), with a manipulated mirror reflection (Anti-Reflection), floating in a cup of water (Sunset), in a bird’s nest (Cuckoo), at the centre of a dandelion seedhead (Very Sensitive May-Concept), illuminated by a heat lamp (Art Takes a Sunbath), and as the caps of hallucinogenic mushrooms (Mutation). Perneczky thus transforms art into a biological species which can be cultivated, propagated, and cropped in vast numbers. The series can therefore be interpreted as an ironic, humorous commentary on the difficult position of art, particularly in totalitarian contexts which further hinder its possibilities of engaging society at large. His following series Art Bubble (1972) presented a satirical critique of the radically expanded concept of art.
Géza Perneczky (born 1936, Keszthely) has been living and working in Cologne since 1970, where he also played an important role in linking Hungarian and Eastern European art with the international art scene. From 1957 to 1962, Perneczky studied history of art and Hungarian language and literature at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Following his studies, he illegally emigrated to the Netherlands. In his first exhibition, held at the Galerie Orez in the Hague in 1964, Perneczky a series of monotypes inspired by Paul Klee and Jean Debuffet. After moving to Cologne in December 1970, he continued making art while also teaching at a grammar school, collaborating with Deutsche Welle, and taking part in radio broadcasts. In 1972, he featured in Klaus Groh’s legendary book Aktuelle Kunst in Osteuropa, the publication of which was accompanied by an exhibition of art introduced by the book at the Studio DuMont in Cologne. Perneczky’s inclusion in the publication had a positive effect on his activities as it connected Eastern European artists and helped them form a wider artistic community. Perneczky contributed to these efforts by publishing the conceptual magazine Important Business, focused on Eastern European art. After receiving German citizenship in 1980, he regained the ability to publish his artistic-theoretical articles, books, and monographs in Hungary, thus allowing the Hungarian art scene to benefit from his role as an observer of the international art world. Perneczky has exhibited at institutions such as the Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Museum of Conceptual Art in San Francisco, the Secession in Vienna, the Kolnischer Kunstverein in Cologne, the DuMont Kunsthalle in Cologne, the Frankfurter Kunstverein in Frankfurt, the Olomouc Museum of Art in Olomouc, and the National Museum in Warsaw, as well as at numerous Hungarian institutions. His work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK), the National Gallery Prague, the Magyar Nemzeti Galéria in Budapest, and the Artpool in Budapest. In 2006, Perneczky received the Széchenyi Prize, awarded by the Hungarian state in recognition of outstanding academic contributions. In 2009, he gifted his mail art collection to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and later, in 2016, he donated other works, including assemblages, graphics, collages, photographs, and correspondences, to the Center for Artist Publications at the University of Bremen.
The conceptual photographic project Concepts Like Commentary (1971) is a series of seven photographs of a wooden ball inscribed with the word “art”, placed in different situations: in front of a geometric grid (Mini-Concept), with a manipulated mirror reflection (Anti-Reflection), floating in a cup of water (Sunset), in a bird’s nest (Cuckoo), at the centre of a dandelion seedhead (Very Sensitive May-Concept), illuminated by a heat lamp (Art Takes a Sunbath), and as the caps of hallucinogenic mushrooms (Mutation). Perneczky thus transforms art into a biological species which can be cultivated, propagated, and cropped in vast numbers. The series can therefore be interpreted as an ironic, humorous commentary on the difficult position of art, particularly in totalitarian contexts which further hinder its possibilities of engaging society at large. His following series Art Bubble (1972) presented a satirical critique of the radically expanded concept of art.
Géza Perneczky (born 1936, Keszthely) has been living and working in Cologne since 1970, where he also played an important role in linking Hungarian and Eastern European art with the international art scene. From 1957 to 1962, Perneczky studied history of art and Hungarian language and literature at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Following his studies, he illegally emigrated to the Netherlands. In his first exhibition, held at the Galerie Orez in the Hague in 1964, Perneczky a series of monotypes inspired by Paul Klee and Jean Debuffet. After moving to Cologne in December 1970, he continued making art while also teaching at a grammar school, collaborating with Deutsche Welle, and taking part in radio broadcasts. In 1972, he featured in Klaus Groh’s legendary book Aktuelle Kunst in Osteuropa, the publication of which was accompanied by an exhibition of art introduced by the book at the Studio DuMont in Cologne. Perneczky’s inclusion in the publication had a positive effect on his activities as it connected Eastern European artists and helped them form a wider artistic community. Perneczky contributed to these efforts by publishing the conceptual magazine Important Business, focused on Eastern European art. After receiving German citizenship in 1980, he regained the ability to publish his artistic-theoretical articles, books, and monographs in Hungary, thus allowing the Hungarian art scene to benefit from his role as an observer of the international art world. Perneczky has exhibited at institutions such as the Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the Museum of Conceptual Art in San Francisco, the Secession in Vienna, the Kolnischer Kunstverein in Cologne, the DuMont Kunsthalle in Cologne, the Frankfurter Kunstverein in Frankfurt, the Olomouc Museum of Art in Olomouc, and the National Museum in Warsaw, as well as at numerous Hungarian institutions. His work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków (MOCAK), the National Gallery Prague, the Magyar Nemzeti Galéria in Budapest, and the Artpool in Budapest. In 2006, Perneczky received the Széchenyi Prize, awarded by the Hungarian state in recognition of outstanding academic contributions. In 2009, he gifted his mail art collection to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and later, in 2016, he donated other works, including assemblages, graphics, collages, photographs, and correspondences, to the Center for Artist Publications at the University of Bremen.
